Introduction: SOARing to High and Engaging Performance:
An Appreciative Approach to Strategy

 

by Jackie Stavros and Gina Hinrichs

Appreciative Inquiry (AI) Coaching is the practical application of AI Principles to the process in which a trained Coach is engaged by a person (or by an organization on behalf of a person) to function as a counselor and advisor.

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This article highlights the steps and value of taking a strength-based approach to strategic planning. In the current complex environment there is an increased emphasis on achieving strategic goals through effective leadership, creativity and engagement. The SOAR framework builds on the best of the classic SWOT analysis by integrating Appreciative Inquiry with a strategic planning framework and creating a transformational process.

BAE Systems – Armament Systems Division Soars with a Strategic Growth Process


by Paul Kope

This case highlights how SOAR was used to create a strategic planning growth process that was introduced to the Division through working with the Vertical Launching System (VLS) Program Director and his staff. The SOAR framework was successfully applied in 2006 to develop strategic objectives and a five-year plan defining the strategic
implementation. An AI Summit of fifty employees from five different locations used SOAR to develop
one-year objectives to support the strategy.

SOARing At All Levels: Aligned Strategic Planning at John Deere


by Gina Hinrichs

Achieving the results of strategy is dependent on alignment and engagement of all levels and units of an enterprise. This case study provides an example of how a global enterprise utilized the SOAR framework that led to innovation and commitment. Through a series of strategic planning sessions at many levels, functions and departments, it was discovered that SOAR provided the context and conversations needed to discover and actualize strategic initiatives. Remarkable results were achieved in not only profitability but in ownership and accountability.

Cooperation and SOARing to Successful Growth

  
by Lionel Boxer

Eight professionals, with long-standing independent practices, formed a partnership to comply with new legislation. Until these rulings were introduced, they had been able to operate as individuals, but new laws required a collective that complied with certain
safeguards. After several years of highly successful operation, the partners engaged in a strategic planning session to realign the business for further growth. With interpersonal conflict limiting the success of the first strategic planning session, Appreciative Inquiry was introduced to subsequent efforts. Conducted eighteen months after the first round of strategic planning, the second round produced greater success.

Seeking Solutions, Discourse and Progress Towards the Future

 
by Cheryl Richardson and Gina Hinrichs

Handling change and creating a vision is a critical role of leadership. Strategic Planning is
the vehicle to find the vision and create the changes needed to achieve the vision. This case
study relates how the SOAR framework was used within a strategic planning process that
supported Metropolitan Library System (MLS) to deal with changes and seek to create
more positive change.

Nonprofit Boards and Appreciative Strategic Planning

 
by Robert E. Peirick

This article is about the experience of providing appreciative strategic planning and strength-based team building to DBC, a professional food and nutrition healthcare association practice group. Most business is completed in monthly teleconferences that last an hour and an annual face-to-face meeting that is held for one or two days. Appreciative Inquiry, SOAR and visual graphics accelerated and facilitated deeper strategic dialogue and engagement in a short window of time. The result was a highly engaged leadership team that was able to synthesize the future mission of the organization from multiple shared visions.

SOAR in Mid Flight

by Marge Schiller with Jackie Stavros

Northern Essex Community College (NECC) in Massachusetts used Appreciative Inquiry
(AI) and the SOAR framework to create their Strategic Plan for 2007-2010. In June 2007,
NECC held a summit called Inspiring the Future: Achieving Regional Excellence. One hundred and fifty-six people participated in the two-day event. The results: the Dean will be launching a Leadership Institute with an emphasis on Appreciative Leading; the planning committee will continue to monitor and inspire use of strength-based whole systems approaches and activities at NECC; and a strategy is being developed for bringing the high level strategic plan into operational goals, milestones and activities on the department level.

SOARing Toward Excellence in an Age of Accountability: The Case of Esperanza School District


by Alan J. Daly, Basha Millhollen and Laila DiGuilio

Accountability reform mandates put pressure on schools and districts to respond in traditional ways that point to the weaknesses in their systems while overshadowing their successes. This extended case study provides schools, districts and policy-makers with a deeper understanding of the value of Appreciative Inquiry, strengths-based approaches and the SOAR-framework of Transformative Strategic Design. Our findings support our premises that in order for schools and districts to positively impact student achievement and the overall health of their schooling organization, they must consider their best efforts and those results as being instructive to their next efforts.

Building Strategic Capacity for Better Work and Care


by Susan O. Wood, Donna S. Havens, and Connie M. Sheaffer

This case study illustrates how SOAR elevates the voice and influence of the staff nurse to
generate exciting plans and innovative solutions. Managers and staff members are experiencing how the process releases energy and previously untapped creativity as well as enabling new leaders to emerge.

SOARing from SWOT: Four Lessons Every Strategic Planner Must Know

by Jen Hetzel Silbert and Tony Silbert

From SWOT to SOAR, this article examines how Appreciative Inquiry’s positive, participative approach to strategy development using SOAR generated sustainable, results-driven outcomes where traditional approaches fell short, yielding four key learnings no strategic plan can do without.

by Jane Galloway-Seiling and Jackie Stavros

SOAR offers a framework for discovering and aligning an organization’s best capabilities,
leading to the discovery of previously unexplored endeavors. This article provides a link for
practitioners so that they have the theory together with the earlier examples of the successful application of SOAR. The theories provide reasons and reasonableness regarding the social construction of strategy through the framework of SOAR.